I'm continuing early story work on Ultrakids 6. I don't have an official title yet, but I wanted it to be something simple yet cool. Two words: Ultrakids __________. I was going through title ideas, but can't think of anything that hasn't already been taken.

Ultrakids RisingUltrakids AwakeningUltrakids Revolution

This is probably the hardest title I've had to think of. All the other titles came pretty naturally, except for The Recruits (I had to think a bit for that one, despite it seeming very obvious).

The good news is that I have a villain (and an actor to play him). He's probably going to be the coolest Ultrakids villain yet....one that may have actual superpowers himself!

Well, I just gave away a super important plot point. Should I even publish this blog post? I'm honestly writing this off the top of my head.

Anyway, the story's looking really exciting. I'm hoping that this will be the best Ultrakids movie yet. It may be a thing of personal pride, but I'm always trying to make each Ultrakids movie better than the previous one. I was a little disappointed with The Recruits despite having a great time filming it, mainly because I didn't have enough Time to make it better than Ultrakids 4.

But if all goes well, this new movie could definitely surpass Ultrakids 4 at all levels: story, special effects, acting...it's going to be a blast.

We do have less time to make this one...I think we made Ultrakids 4 in three months? I'll have about two months to finish this movie, but I'm also trying out a new schedule.

The way I filmed Ultrakids 1 - 3 was pretty simple: everyone would gather after church on Sundays and shoot a movie scene for an hour or two. Or three. This was really difficult because on Sundays people like to relax (except for me at the time, because I thought I was the next Steven Spielberg and had unlimited energy to achieve that dream). Since we could only film during the day, there were no night scenes. Each individual scene had to be completed within the few hours we had that day, so there were no super long scenes.

Things changed with Ultrakids 4, because we stopped filming after church and organized dates on weekends to shoot for longer periods of time. Our first filming session was five hours long. it was heavily scheduled, and we got both of the big battle sequences done that day.

Shooting on a more prioritized schedule (instead of after church on Sundays) really helped make things more relaxed. Besides, Sundays are to focus on God, not movies!

Things are going to be different with Ultrakids 6. This year, I'm running a movie camp, similar to VBS, but with the goal of making a short film (that being Ultrakids 6). It's going to be six hours a day for seven days. That's a lot of time! Usually I can get one minute of footage shot in one hour, so do the math: a 42-minute movie??? Well, wait we also break for lunch, so minus one hour a day. That's still a 35-minute movie, compared to Ultrakids 4, which was 36-minutes (including credits).

In the official statement, I wrote that we would be shooting a 15 minute movie, just to take the stress off. Who knows, I'm pretty sure we didn't shoot for 36 hours for Ultrakids 4. Maybe my hours per minute of footage rate has gone up.

Well, i have been ranting for quite a while now. End statement: I'm excited. I'm really, really excited, and think that this movie could possibly be the best Ultrakids ever. If not the last one. Probably will be the last one. I'm tired. Seriously. I said Ultrakids 3 would be the final Ultrakids. At least, that's how it was introduced at the premiere. What a lie. Look where that got me.

Honestly, one day I have to make an Ultrakids animated serious. Anime-style. Like Avatar the Last Airbender. That would be sick. I can already see it in my head. I have so many other Ultrakids stories to tell. But not ones that I want to spend all this time doing it live-action. A TV show would work perfectly. Let me pitch it to Cartoon Network. Get me a real job. As long as I retain complete ownership over the Ultrakids idea.

That actually scares me. What if Ultrakids becomes someone else's legal property? I'm pretty sure I legally own Ultrakids, simply because I've been using the idea for a while. That's why I wouldn't give Ultrakids to Nickelodeon or Disney, because they'll probably want to own it. Then again, I'm not sure about Cartoon Network. It's probably the same. I just didn't think it was because CN isn't as big as the other two. Blast. Maybe I'll just make a web series instead. Which will most likely result in zero profitability.

It doesn't really matter because I have a hundred other ideas better than Ultrakids, I just haven't been able to use them because they're 1) too expensive to make and 2) I can't distribute them probably. The only reason I primarily make Ultrakids movies is because they're so easy to make, and they're fun! I love all the characters, even though they weren't too developed in the early movies. But that's okay, because when I create the TV show, I'll be able to develop them fully.

A thought just occurred to me. Maybe Veggie boy will read this post. For those of you who don't know, Veggie boy is my cousin, and he seriously doubts my ability to become a Hollywood director.

What the heck is this blog post about? Anyway....

It started back in Ultrakids 2, when I promised him that this movie would be in film festivals and we'll make money off of it, blah blah blah. Well, most of you know how that turned out. We showed Ultrakids 2 at my church's winter retreat and that was that. The film was too cruddy to be sent anywhere else (although compared to other films made by kids my age back then, it wasn't that bad). So ever since then, whenever I talk of some grand plan of mine, Veggie boy rolls his eyes and laughs.

But I'm going to prove him wrong. To the four or five people who will read this blog post, I'm going to prove my cousin wrong. I am going to go to Hollywood one day. It's my calling. I won't have to do anything but obey because God is working things out for me. I can already sense Him moving. I'm dead serious about this. In the past few months, I've had chance meetings with several other people who were called to Hollywood, to bring God's light into the entertainment industry. These meetings were completely random, completely accidental. Or so it would seem.

That's the cool thing about trusting in God. It may seem deathly scary at times when you don't know where He's leading you, but the entire time you know that He has the greatest plan for your life, greater than one you could dream of yourself. Now that's exciting.

And when you finally get to the place He's called you? Wow, what a feeling. It feels so good to be in the center of God's will.

There's only one thing that's truly important, and that's simply knowing God. Enjoying His presence. Living in His love from day to day. That's it.

Some people can't live without accomplishing something great in life, or achieving their dreams. Sure, dreams are God-given tools of inspiration, but they're never greater than God himself. God is enough. I read that in Phil Vischer's autobiographical book, Me, Myself, and Bob, when I was 13 years old. I didn't believe him back then (for those of you who don't know, Phil Vischer is the creator of Veggietales, which crashed and burned after a series of financial disasters). Phil tells us that Veggietales was his dream. His company, Big Idea, was his dream. And when that crashed and burned, where was he now?

That was when he realized that being successful wasn't as important as having a relationship with God. Sounds crazy, I know. But I hope that's the one thing I'll be able to achieve.

If I die tomorrow, will I be satisfied that I've done my part on this earth? If my dreams never came to reality, would I continue to trust God and be okay with that? I hope I would be.

You never know until it actually happens. But keep praying that it will.

Well, thanks to everyone who bothered to read this extremely random but inspired blog post. I don't even remember what this post was about. Oh, that's right, Ultrakids 6. Yeah, movies, let's go!